


Time Triplets: A Parent AU Collection

by TheGreatGame



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Involves three triplet children of the Doctor and Jamie, M/M, Parent AU, Some of the chapters will be from the Drabbles collection, Some will be new
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2018-12-02 03:45:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 5,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11501100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGreatGame/pseuds/TheGreatGame
Summary: Among the infinite collection of alternate dimensions, there are many where the human known as Jamie McCrimmon has children in his later life. Interestingly, there is a subset of dimensions, larger than one would expect, where Jamie has these children with the help of the Doctor. Here, picked among the wild stream of possibilities, are stories from a world where three Gallifreyan/human hybrids are Jamie's progeny. Read on to learn the origins and tales of Robert, Bonnie, and Sigma McCrimmon.





	1. Names: the Epic Tale

Jamie tucked his baby girl into her brand new crib- which was helpfully supplied by the TARDIS- but stopped when she let out a high, petulant whine.

“She wants you,” the Doctor muttered. He wearily rubbed his eyes. “Sh-she wants you to hold her.”

Jamie nodded. He had guessed as much. “Aye, all right.” He picked up the small, squirming newborn and started to rock her from side to side. Her wails immediately started to soften. “Shhh. Shhh, wee...”

Jamie blinked. He stared at his new daughter, as if she would supply the answer, but the baby only squealed.

“She hasn’t got a name.” He blinked the sleep out of his eyes as he looked towards the two baby boys. “None of them have been named.”

“Oh?” The Doctor yawned. “Oh. So they haven’t.” He thoughtfully rubbed a bit of one of the boy’s fluffy brown hair. “You, um, want to do it now?”

“Of course! These wee bairns need to be named. What sort of fathers would we be to make them wait?” Jamie let out a tired chuckle. “Fathers. Och, and they always said to be married first.”

“There’s still time.”

“What?”

“To name! Yes, still time to name them. The babies.” The Doctor awkwardly cleared his throat and looked over his selection of new children.

“This one,” he finally said, “shall be named Sigma.” He was pointing to the second boy, the one child who hadn’t been born with a full head of hair. His wispy blond strands fell into disarray as he turned in his sleep.

“Sigma?” Jamie scoffed. “We can’t give them all good Earth names?”

The Doctor let out a shocked gasp.

“Jamie, I’m appalled! These children have just as much right to be named after their Gallifreyan heritage as their Earth heritage. And secondly, Sigma isn’t Gallifreyan at all! It’s an Earth word. A Greek Earth word.”

“Och, it’s another one of those Greek letters? Why do you want to name our bairn after one of those?”

“Hmmph. Well, Greek letters are well known on Gallifrey. It’s only because of their involvement with mathematics, but they’re still significant. They’ve even been used for names. Back at the Academy, Theta Sigma was a nickname of mine. Naming a son of mine Sigma would be, well, a little like calling him Junior.”

Jamie laughed. “So you want to name him Doctor Junior?”

“In a way, yes.” The Doctor frowned and crossed his arms. “Do you have a problem with that?”

Jamie would have defensively raised his arms, if not for the babe in his arms. “No. In fact, you’re right. You have the right to name one of our children.”

The Doctor smiled. “Then Sigma it is.”

“But I choose the middle name! And their last names are McCrimmon.”

The Doctor whistled. “You drive a hard bargain. But very well.”

Jamie nodded triumphantly. He looked down at little Sigma and paused. He couldn’t think for a moment. Suddenly, all notions of baby names left his mind. He was just so tired and this was so important. When he next spoke, he was as surprised as the Doctor was.

“Frazer.”

“Frazer?”

“Frazer.” Jamie finally regained control of his brain and nodded. “Aye, Frazer. In Scotland, I spent my whole life being told that I look like a Frazer. Makes sense that I would name my kid that.”

“Middle name.”

“Frazer wasn’t one of my favorite names anyway.”

The Doctor burst into laughter, but stopped once he saw the first boy, the unnamed boy, start to fuss.

“I hope you have a better attitude to your other son’s name,” he said. “After all, you’re choosing it.”

“I am? Oh, right. I am.” Jamie surprised himself again with how fast he provided a name. Was he sure of himself or simply too tired to care? “Robert.”

“Robert?” The Doctor raised an eyebrow. His voice sounded like it was raising an eyebrow too. “Robert as in James Robert McCrimmon?”

“Hey, you’re practically naming one Doctor Junior. I’m entitled to a Robert.”

“Fair is fair,” the Doctor agreed. “As for his middle name... Rho.”

“Another Greek letter?” Jamie sighed. “Why this one?”

“I happen to think it sounds nice.”

“You just want to annoy me with our own children.”

“His middle name is Rho. That’s what I want. Final answer.”

“Fine. Rho.”

The Doctor and Jamie both looked at the baby girl in the latter’s arms.

“Only one left.”

“Who’s naming her?” Jamie asked.

The Doctor pondered before taking a coin from his pocket.

“Let’s toss. Heads I win, tails you lose.”

Jamie chuckled and shook his head. He wasn’t tired enough to fall for that.

“Worth a shot,” said the Doctor. “Very well.” He turned the coin over before Jamie to show him it wasn’t his usual double-headed one. “Call it.”

“Tails.”

The Doctor tossed. The Doctor caught.

“Heads.” He gave a triumphant laugh, but quieted down for the babies. “She’s mine to name."

“Oh,” said Jamie. “Oh.” A surge of disappointment flooded him, stronger than his exhaustion. He had really wanted to name his daughter. “Can... can I still hold her?”

“Of course, Jamie.” The Doctor beamed at his still-nameless daughter. “Don’t worry. You’ll get a beautiful, lovely, long Gallifreyan name.”

Jamie groaned. He knew how difficult Gallifreyan names could be. There were people at the CIA he still couldn't remember the names of, even after years of seeing them.

“It’s too bad,” he murmured. “I’ve always thought of naming a baby girl.”

The Doctor was about to say the name he wanted to give his daughter, but was cut off again by Jamie.

“I’ve thought about it nearly all my life. So many good names for a bonnie wee lass like you. Donella, Kirsty, Arabella.” Jamie laughed. “I almost want to name you Victoria.” He smiled sadly at his daughter. “You definitely have her beauty.”

The Doctor frowned. Their children still had the red, wrinkled skin and the tight, frowning faces of newborns. He hardly would’ve called them beautiful. But Jamie still gazed into his daughter’s face, lost in a beauty that only he could see.

“Oh my bonnie wee lass. I’ll love you whatever you’re called.” He gently kissed her face and chuckled as she squirmed in his arms. “My bonnie wee lass.”

The Doctor cleared his throat. “Um, I’ve decided on a name.”

“What is it? How many syllables does it have? Will I ever learn it?”

“I believe you will.”

“So, what is it?”

The Doctor came over and smiled at his lover and at his daughter. 

“Bonnie.”

Jamie blinked. He looked from the Doctor to his daughter, and then to the Doctor again. Then, he laughed.

“Bonnie. My bonnie wee Bonnie.” He looked to Bonnie again and watched her coo. “It’s perfect. She’s perfect.”

“Yes. It is, isn’t it?” The Doctor clapped his hands. “And you can put those baby names from before to good use! What will be her middle name?”

Jamie had to think a little before answering this time. “Freya.”

“Freya. Beautiful name. What does it mean? Or-or was it the name of someone you knew?”

“Freya. It kind of sounds like Gallifrey. Doesn’t it?”

The Doctor was silent for a few moments, but the sparkling look in his eyes said everything that needed to be said. His mouth smiled almost without his permission as he gave Jamie, and Bonnie, a hug.

“I suppose it does. Thank you, Jamie.”

Jamie finally settled Bonnie into bed. This time, she fell asleep.

“Good night, Bonnie Freya McCrimmon. Good night, Robert Rho McCrimmon. Good night, Sigma Frazer McCrimmon.

“Good night, my perfect children.”


	2. A Baby's Name

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, I am, Jamie. Our children don’t think of themselves with the names we gave them. Not yet, anyway.”

"Why not?"

"Well, when a baby gives itself a name, they are often thinking of their plans for the future, of who they want to become."

Jamie raised an eyebrow, still not convinced. He gave a thoughtful glance at the playpen, where his three wee babes played together by smacking each other with pillows.

“So, what have they named themselves, then?”

“Well, Bonnie calls herself a baby word which means ‘Disbander of Armies’. That’s the literal translation, anyway. I suppose the best Earth name for it would be Lysistrata.”

“Lysistrata?”

“Well, that’s just my interpretation. Now Robert, he wants to be called Valiant, the Savior of Worlds.” The Doctor allowed himself a little chuckle. “Like his old man, I suppose.”

Jamie nodded, his thoughts elsewhere. He was amazed at how heroic and surprisingly poetic his children were.

“And Sigma?”

“Sigma? Sigma wants to be called Panda.”

“… Panda the what?”

“Well, Panda the Bear.” The Doctor gestured to the playpen, where Sigma was lovingly sucking on a stuffed panda’s ear. “He quite likes pandas.”

"Oh, aye." Jamie laughed, and then paused again. Finally, he said, "I wonder what I named myself. When I was a bairn."

"I'll bet it was something marvelous. Then again, some babies take to the name they're given immediately. You could have always thought of yourselves as James Robert McCrimmon."

Jamie took one more look at his laughing babies. Then, he wrapped an arm around the Doctor's shoulders and kissed his cheek.

"There's no one I'd want to be right now other than James Robert McCrimmon."


	3. Pappy and Da

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Note: this was originally posted in the Drabbles collection.

Jamie leaned back in his armchair, barely able to stay awake. He was threateningly close to sleep every time he blinked, and yet he couldn’t stop staring at the three cribs across the room, each one containing a small, impossible baby, named not over two hours ago.

Not impossible, he realized, for they were there. They were real. They were his. And the Doctor’s.

And as this thought played through his mind again, something occurred to him.

“Doctor?”

“Hmmm?” The Doctor looked up from his knitting needles. The TARDIS had all the baby clothes they could need, but he insisted on making something, although the socks he had started with had turned into a toy dragon halfway through. “Yes, Jamie?”

“What will they call us?”

“Call us? Jamie…” The Doctor yawned. Both of them were exhausted. “Jamie, what do you mean?”

“Well, usually, children have a mother and a father.”

“Not usually, Jamie, many children across the universe are raised by-”

“Och, you know what I mean. The point is, we’re both men.”

“So?”

“So, they can’t call us both father, then, can they? That would just be confusing.”

The Doctor blinked and then realized what Jamie was getting at. “Oh. Oh, I see.” He set down his knitting and thought. “We’ll just have to have a different name for ‘father’, then. Simple as that.”

“But what name?”

“Hmm.” The Doctor could think of different names for fathers on multiple planets, in a sea of languages, but he wanted something that would be special for Jamie and their children. Him coming from a planet where having children was… complicated didn’t help matters. “Well, what are fathers called where you’re from, Jamie?”

“Er, dad. Da. _Athair_.” Jamie snickered. “Pappy.”

The Doctor sat upright, a smile on his face. “Pappy! I like that name!”

“You do?”

“Oh, yes! It’s very nice.”

“Do you want to be Pappy, Doctor?”

The Doctor looked ready to jump at the chance. Then he shook his head and said, “No, no, you should be Pappy. You came up with the name. I’ll be Dad.”

“Daddy Doctor?”

“I guess so.”

The Doctor and Jamie grinned at each other, relishing in the feeling of taking another step through this unexpected parenthood. Suddenly, Jamie broke off from the moment with a huge yawn.

“The little ones are fast asleep,” said the Doctor, “and I think we should be too.”

“I’m no’ that tired,” Jamie lied.

“We should go to bed all the same. Who knows, they might be waking us up in an hour or so anyway. Babies are known for that.”

Jamie nodded. “Aye, you’re right.” He got up and followed the Doctor to the door. He lingered for a moment, staring back at his three little children.

“Come along, Pappy!” the Doctor called from the hall.

Jamie smiled and walked out after him. “I’m coming, Da.”


	4. HiFi Returns

It is a well known fact that babies can, and will, be very rough with toys. Their stuffed animals are often worn down from being hugged and thrown across the room, and will almost certainly be covered in all sorts of stains. HiFi was Steven’s toy, and as a result, it became very important to the Doctor. Even though Steven had long since left, the Doctor was still frightened the day that his son Sigma found the little stuffed panda. 

He had no idea how HiFi managed to get in the babies' bedroom, but there it appeared one day, in Sigma's pudgy hands. With a cry, the Doctor ran over and took it from him.

“No, no, Sigma! Not this one.” He quickly checked HiFi for any damage, and breathed a sigh of relief after seeing it whole and well. “An old friend of mine owned this, dear. I don’t think he’d like it if he came back just to find it torn up and-”

The Doctor was suddenly shocked into silence after Sigma started to cry loudly and sorrowfully. His son couldn't even stand to look at him, so he put his head in his little hands and wailed. 

The Doctor was torn. He could never stand to hear Sigma crying. And the sound of a crying baby is even more devastating when one is fluent in their language. He looked down at the panda in his hands. Steven wasn't coming back any time soon, he reasoned. Besides, this was an emergency.

He bent down and gave Sigma the panda. Immediately, Sigma stopped his crying. He held HiFi close to dry his tears on its black and white fur.

The Doctor sighed. One day he would have to visit Stephen and thank him. For now, he would listen as Sigma named his panda.


	5. Sing For Me

“Jamie, come here! Bonnie needs you!”

With his eyes still blurry, Jamie lifted his head from the pillows. He finally saw the time on the clock and groaned. He had only been asleep for an hour.

“Doctor, I’m three rooms away! Why can’t you take care of her?”

“Please, come here!”

Jamie sighed, and got up to find the Doctor and Bonnie. When he went to the babies' room, he found the Time Lord trying to shush his fretting baby girl, but she only calmed down once she saw Jamie.

“What is it, Doctor?” Jamie asked as he took Bonnie. “I’m tired.”

“Well, so is Bonnie, and she won’t go to sleep without hearing that Scottish folk song of yours.”

“Really? Are you sure about that?”

“Of course I am. She told me.”

“Och, fine.” Jamie prepared himself to sing. Then, he stopped. “Wait. She told you?”

“Yes. Quite clearly.”

Jamie cast a puzzled glance at the babe in his arms. She was babbling impatiently and reaching for his face.

“She’s hardly old enough to speak yet, Doctor.”

“What? No, she didn’t tell me in English.” Then he realized the misunderstanding. “Jamie, I speak baby.”

“… What?”

“I do. Haven’t I told you?”

“No! Speak baby? How is that even possible?”

The Doctor gave Jamie a funny look. “Would you like me to translate?”

Jamie dumbly nodded in reply.

The Doctor closed his eyes and focused on each small sound that left Bonnie’s lips, every gurgle, coo, or whine. Before long, he started to speak.

“Mother-Father, sing for me. Sing the song of the faraway home. Of the mist and hills and foreign skies. You make it sound so wonderful. I know it was your home. It makes me happy to know that your home is so beautiful, yet you stay to care for me.”

At first, Jamie couldn't speak. He found that he was filled with awe and joy and a whole medley of emotions. Then, he asked, “Why does she call me Mother-Father?”

“All human babies know of mothers and fathers when they are first born, Jamie. It’s a part of nature, so it’s a part of baby knowledge. Even when an infant has two male parents or two female parents, they might choose one to call mother and the other to call father. It’s not a matter of sex so much, but of how they are cared for, or even their own opinions. The fact that you’re Mother-Father is wonderful news. That means that she, and Sigma and Robert as well, view you as the ultimate caretaker. You are caring and loving, fierce and protective. You are everything that parents should be."

Jamie gasped; his breath caught in his throat with something like a happy sob.

The Doctor smiled at Jamie, before he focused again on Bonnie.

“Father Time can’t sing like you, Mother-Father. He can sing like a fool and sing like a god, but you sing like a hero. I want to hear your song, Mother-Father. Sing for me and I will sing for you.” He cleared his throat. “Babies think that laughing is singing as well.”

Jamie chuckled before rocking Bonnie from side to side. He looked into her hazel eyes with his own shining ones. Softly, he started to sing, and Bonnie laughed like an angel.


	6. First Words

Bonnie’s first word was her own name. It wasn’t too hard for her to learn it, considering that Jamie loved to hold her and whisper that she was his bonnie wee lass, that she’ll always be his bonnie wee lass. She said it one day while Jamie was rocking her to sleep, but Jamie wouldn’t let her sleep after that. He immediately ran to the Doctor to let him hear her first word. They got the camera out, and then they had a large cooing session afterwards. When it was all over, Bonnie was exhausted, and she slept through the entire night.

Robert was the second sibling to have a first word, and his word was “hero”. He loudly announced it while the Doctor was telling him a bedtime story. 

In fact, the word would be an omen of things to come. All throughout his childhood, Robert would be obsessed with superheroes. He loved Earth superheroes, alien warriors, and knights in shining armor. He would dress up in capes and find the perfect masks until, finally, he would decide to style his own wardrobe a little more like his fathers’. After all, they saved planets wearing oversized suits and kilts. 

Sigma’s first word was very sweet, and his second word came not long after it. He was crawling around the Doctor's leg one afternoon, trying to get his attention. The Doctor was busy teaching Jamie how to knit.

“And then you purl, and then you knit again. No, that’s a purl stitch! You have to knit!”

“Och, how did my mother make this look so easy?”

Sigma tried tugging on the Doctor’s pant leg, but to no avail.

“Jamie, just because you’re a father now doesn’t mean you have to learn to-”

“No! My mother made me clothes when I was a bairn, so one of us should do the same.”

“Then let me do it!”

Jamie scoffed. “We tried that. I left you alone with the knitting needles for one moment and you knitted a toy dragon.”

“Sigma loved it!”

“You were supposed to be making him socks!”

“Well, I don’t hear him complaining.”

Actually, the Doctor _could_ hear Sigma complaining, but for once, he brushed him aside.

“Just a moment, Sigma dear. Your Pa is being completely ridiculous.”

“I’m being ridiculous?”

“I’m glad you agree with me.”

“Why, you cheeky wee-”

“You obstinate Scottish-”

“Hug!”

The Doctor and Jamie shut up and turned to stare at their son. Sigma, noticing that he had his fathers’ attention, stretched his arms towards them and cried out his first words.

“Hug, Dad! Hug!”

That certainly ended the argument.


	7. First Steps

“Doctor! Doctor!” Jamie ran to the Doctor with a giggling and confused Bonnie bouncing in his arms. “She walked!”

Once Jamie caught his breath, he set Bonnie down and told her to go to Da. Bonnie, hoping that more affection and praise was on the way, stood up and took a few shaky steps towards the Doctor. She collapsed onto his legs when she was finished and laughed when she saw him smiling down at her.

“My, my! Oh, she’s growing up so fast.”

Bonnie raised her little arms while opening and closing her hands. This was the babies’ signal for “Carry me!”

“Da! Da! Up!”

The Doctor obliged his daughter and gave her a big, noisy kiss on the top of her head. Bonnie squirmed and squealed, but her smile never left her face.

Meanwhile, Jamie was nearly bouncing up and down in his excitement.

“I cannae believe it! It was only so long ago they started to speak and now-now this! Oh god, our children are so smart, Doctor!”

The Doctor chuckled. “Well, I guess they owe that to a pair of intelligent fathers.”

“Not me.” Jamie petted Bonnie’s hair in admiration. “No, when I was her age, I was still crawling, unable to say a clear word for my life.” He frowned. “In fact, that was the same with everybody I knew. Doctor, I’m not sure children should be doing these things so soon.”

The Doctor hesitated before he next spoke.

“ _Should_ be doing? Jamie, no two babies are the same. They develop at their own pace.”

“I guess you’re right.” Jamie kissed Bonnie’s head as well. “We just happen to have extraordinary ones.”

Bonnie gave a delighted squeak. Then, suddenly, she was drawing on the Doctor’s face with a purple marker. Somehow, she had hidden one up her baby throw’s sleeve. Jamie laughed and took her back, torn between reprimanding or congratulating her.

The Doctor sighed, and a guilty whine fell from his lips. He evaded the subject of their children's fast development so often that it nearly felt like lying; but it wasn't, not at all. After all, he didn't need to tell Jamie that their children’s intelligence mostly came from him. He just didn't want to. But that didn't stop him from feeling bad every time he remembered why.

He shrugged off these feelings and went to the bathroom to go wash his face. 

After lathering his face with suds and rinsing thoroughly, the Doctor groped about for a towel. Finally, he snatched one from a tiny pair of hands.

“Thank you,” he said, before drying his face. Then, he looked down.

Robert smiled up at him from the floor, standing confidently. Then he walked over and hugged him around the legs.

“Hi, Da.”

“… _Jamie_!”


	8. Questions

“Pappy, why is everyone on Earth?”

“Eh?” Jamie looked down at his son. “What was that, love?”

Sigma looked up from where he was nestled in Jamie’s lap. He resembled Jamie the most, but, like his siblings, his eyes were filled with a bright intelligence that Jamie knew he didn’t have at three years old. They sparkled in the sunlight that filtered through the leaves on the tree they were sitting under.

“In the media room. We always watch things from Earth. And I asked Da, I asked Da, is Earth a real place, and he said yes! Yes, it is a real place!”

“Aye, it is,” Jamie chuckled. Sigma, as smart as he was, still had trouble pronouncing the “th” sound. As homesick as Jamie was, he had to laugh at being reminded of the planet “Earfff”. “I could have told you that. You know that I’m from Earth.”

“But I didn’t know that anyone else was there! Just you!”

Jamie couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

“Just you an’ the others Da talks about. But Da said there’s millions and, and billions and billions of people there. Lots and lots of people.” 

Sigma started to squirm excitedly in pure toddler energy. Jamie struggled to get a better hold on him. 

“Aye, so there is.”

“But if so many people live on Earth, and you’re from Earth…” 

“… Sigma?”

“Mmmm?” He looked up from a butterfly.

“Finish your thought.”

“Oh. If there are so many people on Earth, why do we live here?”

Jamie froze, his good mood fading like the afternoon sun. He knew that this question had been coming ever since he and the Doctor first came here. That didn’t make it any less difficult or painful to explain.

“Why didn’t you ask your Da that? He’d explain it better.”

“He told me to ask you.”

Damn him.

“Well… he’s told you what we live on, right?”

“Home is a very small planet,” Sigma proudly remembered. The Doctor hadn’t told them its name because it was just a long stream of numbers and letters, a scientific label instead of good, simple words. Besides, he thought that the title “Home” would be enough. “It was terror-formed, and it’s got plants and things that aren’t from Earth.”

“That’s right. We live here because we were told to.”

“By the Time Lords.”

“Aye.”

“But _why?_?”

Jamie groaned and ran a hand through his hair. Even when he didn’t have to worry about missions or dying at the hands of some beastie, it was mussed and fretted with.

“I’d rather tell all of you bairns at once. With the Doctor.”

“Daddy said that we can go to Earth one day!”

“One day, yes.”

“But I wanna go now! I wanna see all the people!”

Jamie tried to calm his son down, but it was too late. Sigma had gotten up and was already bouncing around like a wee monkey.

“Sigma-”

“I wanna see Scotland! I wanna see all of it! Why can’t we go now?”

“Sigma, please-”

“Why can’t we go now, Pappy? Why can’t we see the others that Dad talks about?”

“Can you stop-”

“I want to see pandas and people and families! Do you have one, Pappy? Do you have a pappy too? I know you must have. Is he still on-”

“ _Stop asking questions!_ ”

The shout rang across the clearing, and everything suddenly became very, very quiet. Jamie looked as shocked and horrified as Sigma.

“Sigma-”

Jamie gave up as Sigma started running back to the TARDIS, screaming. He knew that the screaming was just dramatic, but it didn’t take away from the truth- he had scared his son. 

What had gotten over him? Even when Sigma was acting like a wee terror with his siblings, Jamie had never shouted like that. 

He sighed and watched the sun set on his own, dreading the explanations to come.


	9. More Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Triplets run out of time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An important piece of information before we start: this collection is a random assortment of Triplet tales, which is why I'm putting this story here. However, there has been a rather large leap in time. The Triplets are eight years old and in some danger. Allow me to explain.
> 
> One day in the not-too-distant future, I'll concentrate and write a proper origin story for the Triplets, and an explanation of how Two and Jamie can care for them while they're working for the CIA. In a nutshell, in order to understand this snippet, here is what is going on: the Triplets were obtained during a mission for the Celestial Intervention Agency, the group of Time Lords that the Doctor and Jamie work for in season 6B. Obviously, the Time Lords are not happy to find that their agents have brought back babies. However, thanks to the Doctor's future selves, an unexpected law, tangled in legalese, is in the CIA rule books: the Doctor and Jamie have the full right to spend a maximum of ten years taking care of the children on their own while they figure out what to do with them. 
> 
> Unfortunately, the Time Lords have come to stop the clock early, led by (an original Time Lord character of mine named) Dungarth. And that is where we now find ourselves.
> 
> Don't worry, more baby and toddler cuteness can and will appear here. For now, here is some pain.

“You keep away from them! You better keep away from-! Let go of-!”

The guard shot Jamie in the chest, right above the location of his heart, making it hurt on the outside as well as the inside. It was on stun, thank goodness, but it seemed to also have an electrifying effect. Jamie had been knocking the other guards over, the ones who dared to try and hold him back, but the ray made him agonizingly still. He fell to the floor with a howl, unable to even turn his head towards his children, who were screaming for him from the arms of more guards.

“Jamie!”

The Doctor started leaping towards Jamie, but slid to a halt as a stun gun was shoved in his face. He stepped back, hands in the air. His hearts were tearing themselves apart inside him, but he would be of no use to anyone, not to Jamie or the kids, lying on the floor.

“I always knew he was a bit wild.”

The leader of the party of Time Lords stepped forward. Dungarth sneered down at Jamie’s prone form. He had never liked this human. In fact, he was quite pleased that the Scotsman’s older age made him more susceptible to the effects of the stun beam. McCrimmon would be flitting in and out of consciousness for quite some time, might even slip into a short coma if things turned drastic.

Wonderful.

Dungarth dropped his smile before turning to the triplets behind him.

“Stop struggling,” he snarled, “unless you want to be like your primitive parent.”

Blood chilled in the Doctor’s veins. Ask his children to stay still? That was already an impossible request. He looked at each of their distressed faces- Bonnie, eyes narrowed as she made direct eye contact with Dungarth; Sigma, crying even harder now, poor dear; Robert, bucking about like a wild horse in a guard’s arms. He looked at them all and hoped Dungarth was bluffing.

“Why are you doing this?” the Doctor asked, hoping to draw attention away from the triplets. “We’ve done nothing wrong! They’ve done nothing wrong!”

“Their existence was a thing to be corrected ever since their creation, Doctor.” Dungarth turned his back on the children; the Doctor somehow breathed easier under that malicious gaze. “You were given ten years off of service to find a way to dispose of them.”

“And it’s only been eight years!” the Doctor cried. “We still have two left to find a new place for them. We’ll be risking our lives again for you soon, I guarantee it.”

The Doctor didn’t believe that a person’s appearance could say much about a person’s morality, what with beauty being subjective, and true kindness being an abstract form. He believed that justice, mercy, and love could come from anywhere, no matter something’s appearance, and he did his best to teach his children that as well.

Dungarth, however, tested his belief. It might have been how the CIA officer hated the Doctor, and later Jamie and their children, ever since they first stepped into the grand offices, but the Doctor could only see malice in those wide, piercing green eyes, could only see his thin skeletal face in a scowl.

Dungarth looked even more like a skeleton when he bared his teeth in what he called a grin.

“Do you think we’re so stupid, Doctor? There are clearly no signs of you even considering where else they could live.”

“Well, it’s been on the back of my mind! It… it’s hard raising three children-”

“Raising!” Dungarth barked the word. “You’ve been raising them! You’re supposed to be getting rid of them! It’s clear you’re not even trying, and it only takes council votes to overrule laws in the name of justice.”

“Justice!” The Doctor dared to move enough to gesture at Jamie, who was still groaning on the floor. “You call that justice! Incapacitating a father who was simply trying to protect his children?”

Dungarth cocked his head, and the Doctor realized his error. These were Time Lords. They knew nothing about parenting, what it means, what it should mean. To people like Dungarth and the guards, the triplets were just a nuisance. And the universe knew what Time Lords did to nuisances.

“Your place is in our services,” said Dungarth. “Not raising filthy hybrids.”

Past Dungarth, Bonnie was leaning over to Sigma, her unruly hair covering their faces as she whispered comfort to him. The Doctor closed his eyes. It was easier that way.

“What will happen to them?” he asked, his voice just above a whisper.

“That depends on another vote. We’ve decided to be fair, you see. Most of the council is leaning towards separation and dispersion: sending them each to a different adoption agency on different planets and in time zones. Information that would be unknown to you and your human, of course.”

The children stopped their whispering, crying, scheming, to gasp as one. Each of them had heard something that had somehow been worse than their father screaming helplessly before them.

“No!” The Doctor’s eyes snapped open. “Not even you would be so monstrous!”

“Monstrous? That’s the best outcome for your children.” A corner of Dungarth’s mouth tilted upward. “Some people are suggesting that they should even be put to an end. What with certain… rumors about hybrids going about.”

“Stories! You’d be ending children’s lives for fairy stories! And you call yourself a member of a, a civilized race!”

In the next moment, Dungarth’s nose was touching the Doctor’s, the first moment of physical contact they ever had.

“Says the Time Lord who ruts like a beast with a human and raises three abominations.”

Then Dungarth screamed so loud that the Doctor had to cover his ears. He looked behind the officer and gasped. While the Doctor had taken the attention of the room, Robert had struggled enough to headbutt his guard in the solar plexus, free himself, and then aim a hard kick right at Dungarth’s behind.

From the floor, Jamie grabbed a hold of Dungarth’s robes and yanked hard, sending the officer down with him. Bonnie and Sigma were cheering, struggling as their guards were temporarily shocked.

Robert gritted his teeth and prepared himself for a tackle.

“Creag an-”

He shouldn’t have had a weapon. Dungarth’s position was in the offices, in the Citadel, not on the field. The Doctor pleaded the universe with this in his head as he watched Dungarth pull a stun gun out of his robes and shoot Robert.

Bonnie and Sigma stopped struggling at the sight of their brother getting shocked, which was a rather unfortunate decision. The guards tightened their grasps, leaving horrible marks on their skin. Robert’s guard lifted him by the back of his shirt. He only had enough strength left to sob as he wet himself.

Jamie cried out and scrambled to his feet, only to have Dungarth’s foot shove him back down. He crumpled like a cardboard box.

Dungarth smoothed out his robes and nodded to the guards. “We’ll be back for you two later. Don’t try to follow or we’ll set the guns higher.” He pulled Robert’s head up by the hair, displayed his crying and drooling to the room. “And we won’t use them on you.”

“Don’t touch him!” cried Bonnie, the hatred in her eyes glowing strong through her tears. “You’ll regret this! I’m going to beat your asses so hard!”

They ignored her just like they ignored her father.

“No. No! Please!” the Doctor cried to their backs. “I swear I can find a place for them! I swear I have a plan! I just need more time!”

The moment before they left the control room, Sigma managed to turn around enough to cry back towards the Doctor, “Daddy!”

And then he was gone. They were all gone.

“A year, a month, a day! Please! Please!” The Doctor’s sobs echoed in the empty room, empty save for two helpless fathers. “Please. I just need more time. I just need more time.”


End file.
